Sunday, September 2, 2018



I love a long, winding fiction story, but I'm also a big fan of novellas. It takes me generally four to eight months to write a full-length novel but only about a month for a novella. I also enjoy reading novellas because I can usually finish one in an evening.

So what is a novella, you ask? The official definition is: a fictional prose narrative that is longer and more complex than a short story; a short novel

It's a story that is usually 15,000 to 35,000 words, although most of the ones I've written have been around 20,000. They tend to be a more linear story, with one or two points of view, and they rarely have a subplot since there isn't enough word count for that.

I got my start writing novellas, and I have written somewhere around twenty of them, so they are near and dear to my heart. I just finished a novella this week called The Marriage Sham, which will appear in Mail-Order Mishaps. It releases next year. Do you have a favorite novella or novella collection?

And now for a special deal:




Vickie McDonough is an award-winning author of nearly 50 published books and novellas, with over 1.5 million copies sold. A bestselling author, Vickie grew up wanting to marry a rancher, but instead, she married a computer geek who is scared of horses. She now lives out her dreams penning romance stories about ranchers, cowboys, lawmen, and others living in the Old West. Her novels include End of the Trail, winner of the OWFI 2013 Booksellers Best Fiction Novel Award. Whispers on the Prairie was a Romantic Times Recommended Inspirational Book for July 2013. Song of the Prairie won the 2015 Inspirational Readers Choice Award. Gabriel’s Atonement, book 1 in the Land Rush Dreams series, placed second in the 2016 Will Rogers Medallion Award. Vickie has recently stepped into independent publishing.

Vickie has been married over forty years to Robert. They have four grown sons, one daughter-in-law, and a precocious granddaughter. When she’s not writing, Vickie enjoys reading, doing stained glass, watching movies, and traveling. To learn more about Vickie’s books or to sign up for her newsletter, visit her website: www.vickiemcdonough.com

6 comments:

  1. Vickie, Novellas are fun to write as well as a challenge. You have to fit a complete story into such a small space, but they are rewarding as well and fun to read. Thanks so much for sharing.

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  2. I think novellas are challenging to write. You have the process down. Good for you.

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